I love what you said about this card HeavenV. I never thought about the whole "wholeness" thing. You're right, I guess when you can truly let go, what you're affirming to yourself is that you lack for nothing...as Dr. Wayne Dyer said..."I know that I am already whole and that I need not chase after anything to be complete."
Letting go should be a very natural thing by the looks of this card, like breathing. I am learning, only now, how important and benefical this way of being can be.
Out goes any resistance, there is no guilt, no blame, just surrender.

A whole lot of this deck echoes what I've learned over the years in the AA program. One of the slogans is "Let go and let God". (They use the word God because it's a common term, not because it's a strictly Christian program or anything.)

I love the beautiful image on the card. Living where I do, where we have rain forests and lots of streams, lakes, and rivers everywhere you look, I've always loved watching raindrops roll down off of leaves and fall into the bigger body of water. The air is always cool with moisture and the moisture beads up into drops as it becomes part of something bigger, then rolls off the leaves into a stream becoming part of something still bigger, and finally the stream becomes a river, which then joins a bigger and bigger river till finally it all empties into the ocean----where moisture evaporates up to the clouds and the cycle starts all over again. I feel peaceful just thinking of it.

Letting go in the sense depicted in this card means stopping the fight to "be somebody" and just accepting that in becoming part of the greater whole we're set free. We don't have to grasp and fear we're going to be "nobody" anymore. We're what we're supposed to be in the greater scheme and without us, the greater plan wouldn't be complete.

While looking at the card and reading the accompanying text, the same phrase Lyric mentioned, "Let go and let God," occurred to me as well. What a beautiful image! If I were dying of a terminal disease, I could see myself spending a lot of time looking at this card. I find the idea of slipping off the edge, surrendering to the inevitable, and then falling back into the Source very attractive. I also love the description of how the drop would tremble right on the "edge between the known and the unknown."

Letting go of the ego makes it easier to let go of everything else. But letting go of the ego is not an easy thing to accomplish. Being nobody goes against the grain for most of us (one of my favorite Buddhist books is "Being Nobody, Going Nowhere" by Ayya Khema). Even for those who consider themselves to be non-materialistic and spiritual, there is the temptation to think of one's self as a "spiritual person" or "a meditator" or an "enlightened" person. It's difficult to let go of any notion of being anyone and to be content simply to be.

This card is glorious! We have just looked at 'Projection' and seen how we cling to the images that we believe in, and here is the injunction to just let go, accept, let it be, open the clutching fingers of 'mine' and stop fighting against what must be.
I did a spread for myself a short while ago, just as I was about to take refuge into the buddhist faith. This card was my third card. It meant a huge amount at the time (before the ceremony) about leaving the old behind, discovering the new dimensions now available to me, passing the point of no return into a new way of behaving. And at the ceremony itself it became even more pointed - it was boiling hot, airless, the shrine room was full of people, and I was stressed, claustrophobic, dreadful pain the chest, and I couldn't breathe. I collapsed just about at the lama's feet, in front of all those people! I felt so dreadful and so embarrassed, but everyone was so kind and sort of shrugged it off, and several mentioned 'letting go' of everything (including consciousness) almost as if it were a fitting thing to have done. I ended up being checked for a heart attack, but it was 'just' stress. So this card has extra special meaning for me.
Even without that experience I find this magnificent. The deep pool of water, the shining drops balanced on the leaves, the concept of growth from the mud below the water into the air, of unseen beginnings developing into beauty and strength, the ripples showing thought, action, and the idea that the ripples will flow and disappear, and become one again with the pool. You can just go on and on seeing more and more.

Here is another 8 I stumbled across in my journey through my new-used Osho Zen (preshuffled).

In the rooms I frequented, we used the term, "turning it over to one's higher power." In admitting we were powerless, we were able to make great gains.

This card, like the 8 of Rainbows, reminds me that I am powerless. I can no more prevent a drop of water from (eventually) landing in the pond than I can hold back an ocean wave.

Maybe it's the element of water which has a feeling of inevitability to it. There are many expressions where we use the symbolism of water; water finds its own level, wait till the waters recede, don't make waves. (Got to restart be right back)

It captures so many perfect moments; the drop that has fallen in the water, has merged with the water, and has created ripples. The gleaming drop in the center, about to fall. The present moment, in which nothing is happening. And we wait.

As I look further into the card, I see that the water is perfectly still, except for the drop, and I see reflections of trees on the surface of the water, and the silouette of one head--or is it two?--as well.

The traditional RWS 8 of Cups is about the sadness of leaving things behind. I don't sense a trace of sadness in this card.

I like the descriptions regarding this card reflecting a cyclical and natural flow. There is no control in this card, things are just happening as they have before. As much as there is change from an ending to a new beginning, it is nothing new on its own; it has happened many times before, but there is always something a little different and a little unique about each time it happens. Giving up something is also the process of giving something elsewhere, but there is a knowing here, too. You can predict what is happening and will happen... It is repetitious, even if it takes a slightly different path each time.

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